Grammatically CORRECT 2ND EDITION THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO SPELLING, STYLE, USAGE, GRAMMAR, AND PUNCTUATION REVISED & UPDATED Anne Stilman
Grammatically Correct 2010 by Anne Stilman. Manufactured in the United States of America. All rights reserved. No other part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Published by Writer s Digest Books, an imprint of F+W Media, Inc., 4700 East Galbraith Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45236. (800) 289-0963. Second edition. For more resources for writers, visit www.writersdigest.com/books. To receive a free weekly e-mail newsletter delivering tips and updates about writing and about Writer s Digest products, register directly at http://newsletters.fwpublications.com. 14 13 12 11 10 5 4 3 2 1 Distributed in Canada by Fraser Direct, 100 Armstrong Avenue, Georgetown, Ontario, Canada L7G 5S4, Tel: (905) 877-4411. Distributed in the U.K. and Europe by David & Charles, Brunel House, Newton Abbot, Devon, TQ12 4PU, England, Tel: (+44) 1626-323200, Fax: (+44) 1626-323319, E-mail: postmaster@davidandcharles.co.uk. Distributed in Australia by Capricorn Link, P.O. Box 704, Windsor, NSW 2756 Australia, Tel: (02) 4577-3555. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Grammatically correct : the essential guide to spelling, style, usage, grammar, and punctuation / by Anne Stilman. -- 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-1-58297-616-7 (alk. paper) 1. English language--grammar--handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. English language--rhetoric--handbooks, manuals, etc. 3. English language--usage--handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Title. PE1112.S748 2010 428.2--dc22 2010001925 Edited by Nicole Klungle and Scott Francis Designed by Claudean Wheeler Production coordinated by Mark Griffin
To the memory of my mother, Ruth
CONTENTS Preface...1 Part 1: THE BUILDING BLOCKS: WORD BY WORD Spelling Issues...5 Frequently Misspelled Words...6 Spelling Variations... 11 Frequently Confused Homonyms... 17 Hyphenation... 24 Vocabulary Quirks and Challenges...32 Frequently Misused Words... 32 Plural Formations... 40 Negative Formations... 45 Using Type Style for Effect...50 Uses of Capitalization... 50 Uses of Italic Type... 59 Uses of Boldface Type... 68 Part 2: PUNCTUATION Basic Sentence Structure...72 Subject and Predicate... 72 Independent and Dependent Clauses... 74 Phrases... 75 Sentence Fragments... 76 Comma...77 Separating the Main Elements of a Sentence... 78 Separating Elements in a Series... 93 Setting Off Dialogue and Quotations... 96 Indicating Omitted Words... 98 Other Uses of the Comma... 98 Semicolon...100 Separating Elements... 101
Linking Elements... 106 Style Conventions... 108 Colon...109 Introducing What Follows... 109 Adding Emphasis... 112 Other Uses of the Colon... 114 Colon or Semicolon?... 116 Style Conventions... 116 Period...118 Ending a Sentence... 118 Indicating Abbreviations... 122 Other Uses of the Period... 125 Question Mark...127 Indicating Queries... 127 Indicating Rhetorical Questions... 130 Indicating Requests... 131 Indicating Uncertainty... 131 Style Conventions... 131 Exclamation Point...132 Indicating Importance or Emotion... 132 Indicating Rhetorical Questions... 134 Capturing Attention... 134 Cautions About the Exclamation Point... 135 Style Conventions... 135 Hyphen...137 Indicating Word Breaks... 137 Linking the Parts of a Compound Adjective... 140 Acting As a Stand-In for a Repeated Word... 145 Indicating Intonations or Pronunciations... 146 Slash...149 Indicating And or Or Relationships... 149 Indicating Other Relationships... 151 Separating Lines of Poetry... 152
Parentheses...154 Working in Digressions... 155 Making Complex Text Easier to Follow... 156 Setting Off Details... 158 Style Conventions... 159 En Dash...163 Linking Ranges... 163 Linking Words... 163 Style Conventions... 164 Em Dash...165 Marking Off An Important Point Or A Digression... 165 Marking A Break In Structure Or Turn In Content... 167 Indicating Interrupted Or Scattered Speech... 169 Style Conventions... 171 2-Em and 3-Em Dashes...173 2-Em Dash... 173 3-Em Dash... 174 Style Conventions... 174 Brackets...175 Identifying Changes to Quoted Material... 175 Enclosing Digressions Within Parentheses... 179 Other Uses of Brackets... 179 Style Conventions... 180 Quotation Marks...181 Setting Off Dialogue... 181 Setting Off Citations... 184 Indicating Significance... 185 Setting Off Titles... 188 Style Conventions... 188 Ellipsis...191 Indicating Omissions... 191 Indicating Hesitant or Trailing Speech... 192 Imparting Significance... 194 Style Conventions... 195